A 17-year-old Indian gang rape victim commits suicide

posted 28 Dec 2012, 04:30 by Mpelembe
[
updated 28 Dec 2012, 04:31
]

A 17-year-old Indian girl who was allegedly gang raped in northern India in November commits suicide.

PATIALA, PUNJAB, INDIA (DECEMBER 27, 2012) (ANI) - A 17-year-old girl in the northern Indian state of Punjab who was allegedly raped in November, committed suicide on Wednesday (December 26) after police failed to take action against the accused.

India media said she had consumed poison at home and died later at hospital.

Police sources said the incident in Punjab happened on November 13 in Badshahpur village of Patiala district when three men abducted the girl on the night of the festival Diwali. She was then raped several times and then dumped on the road.

The victim had tried to report the case but for 14 days, the local police did not register the case and tried to force a settlement between the rapists and the girl's family.

In her suicide note, the girl had mentioned that after the police had finally registered the case, they repeatedly called her to the police station and humiliate her by asking uncomfortable questions related to the incident.

After the suicide, the police hastily arrested the accused, two men and a woman, on Thursday (December 27).

"Yesterday that girl committed suicide. She mentioned three people in her suicide note. They are Balwinder Singh, Gurpreet Singh and Tejender Pal Kaur. These are the same people who were involved in the rape case. She held them responsible for her death. All three of them have been arrested in the case. Action has taken about one and half months later since the incident after the girl committed suicide. It is a very sensitive matter. The girl is like a daughter to us. I have taken it very seriously," Patiala police chief Paramjit Singh Gill told reporters.

He added the officer in charge of the police station has been sacked for negligence.

"Till November 27, almost for 14 days, no action was taken in this case. No case was registered neither was any arrest made. Attempts were also made to hush up the case by arriving at a compromise. But nothing happened. After 14 days when the case was registered. In our system the case is passed on to higher officials. From the police station it goes to the control room, and from there it goes to the SSP (Senior Superintendent of Police) and then to us. Even in that process this case was held back," said Gill.

The news of the teenager's suicide comes as a 23-year-old medical student who was brutally assaulted by six men in a moving bus in New Delhi, battled for her life in a Singapore hospital.

The savage New Delhi gang rape has caused outrage in India with thousands participating in massive protests demanding stringent punishment for the rapists and tough anti-rape laws.

In India, most sexual assaults go unreported. But the brutality of recent attack triggered the biggest protests in the capital since mid-2011 demonstrations against corruption that rocked the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.